Based on what you have learnt in sustainable development (environmental geography) - reflect on how the current development is unsustainable, and/or how development can be more sustainable that it is now

  Global Sustainable Development is a process whereby development is met of the present needs without compromising the ability of development of the future generations. These needs consist of the limitations of technology, social organizations regarding environment’s potential to meet the needs globally. It is a way to ensure the growth of a city while wisely preserving land and resources. The current state of earth’s natural resources is in a risky state; these resources include water, land surfaces biodiversity and even the atmosphere. Due to the need for natural resources, instead of maintaining such resources for sustainable development in the near future, the natural resources are slowly being washed out by the current generations and thus making it a unsustainable development.

  The people of current generations are slowly exploiting the little amount of natural resources left in the world. The exploitation of water and it will be used up by the year 2025. The use of lands to build new and modern agriculture, it has received an increase from 1.8 tons to 2.5 tons of cropland. Such increases of exploitation could cause the lands of this world to be degraded as well as less productive. The current generations are also causing air pollution that might cause damage to the atmosphere; more than 2 million people are already suffering at the current stage of air pollution per year.

  Although there are many causes as to why the current generation’s development is unsustainable, there is always room for improvement. Such improvement for impactful climate changes for environment sustainability includes recycling products to save the natural resources. For instance, when used stationary, plastic, metal scrap or even paper, we could actually purchase recycled materials or even leave it to get recycled after use. Such small act could make a difference in the current environment as well as for the future generations. Mainly by using recycled paper, more trees would be saved and therefore more trees and plants to refresh the current polluted air. Though using recycled materials could be useful to the environment, there are much more thing that we could do the help in environment sustainability. Even computers or even electronics could be sent for recycling instead of leaving them for dumping in the landfill.

  We could also start by using less fossil fuels as such resources are non-renewable compared to the likes of paper or plastic. Fossil fuels are usually converted into coal, oil or natural gas when being burned. Thus, causing a huge release of C02 into the atmosphere and cause air pollution. With air pollution rising, it is also damaging the earth’s ozone layer and is getting it closer to global warming. This is also one of the reasons why car developer companies are slowly trying to create fuel efficiency cars and even electrical cars to make them both functional as well as more environmental friendly. By polluting the environment with chemicals that are used daily, it could affect our human body system as well. Such product that includes harmful chemical includes personal care products, pest control products and even plastic products. Some of these products that produces toxins are both harmful to our human body as well as the environment. We could also try to lower down the current population as there are currently 6.8 billion people alive on earth and if the current population keeps the current increase rate, there would be an estimated amount of 8.1 billion by the year 2025. Therefore, the need of such natural resources will seek an increase amount as well. By the time it has reached to such a large number of populations, it would be as good as impossible to recover from such environmental unsustainable development. This is a sign that we should start acting soon before it’s too late. We should also keep in mind that such changes include social, cultural and economic factors.

Reflection on video - Tsunami the aftermath

          'Tsunami the aftermath' is a video about the problems surfaced after a Tsunami and it happened in Thailand in 2004, it is based on research and interviews to show the people around the world visually about Tsunami and how does it affected the people. The issues regarding the video and categorized as social, economic and political.

          The social issue in the movie was burning bodies without identification. In the movie, a scene of monks are seen burning dead bodies without identification and informing the deceased's loved ones. Their purpose of burning the dead bodies is so that they could prevent/stop infection from spreading. This is a case of moral dilemma because in a person's perspective it is morally wrong to dispose the dead bodies wihout informing the deceased's loved ones. The families of these dead bodies have the right to know if they are dead or alive or else they will be living in doubts, it will be a living hell experience for them. If they keep the dead bodies any longer, fatal infection may spread around and affect the living people around them, then more people would die. This is an irresponsible act. In this scenario, I would suggest them to take pictures of all the dead bodies before burning them so that their families would be informed if they are dead or alive. Again, this is just my opnion. Different people has different opinions regarding morals.

          Another social issue was regarding the chaos, confusion and looting that took place after the disaster. Chaos was when the villages and hotels affected and destroyed and the places are in the mess with casualties and dead bodies all over the places. The people who survived the natural disaster were left in confusion and questioning whether their family memebers with them are safe and sound. Wondering if they could pull this through while the foreigners would wonder how are they able to get home. A family of westerners in the movie, a man died on his way to the hospital leaving his wife and two sons. His death left his family devasted and it could leave his wife thinking how is she able to support her two sons alone and more questions running through her mind. In the video looting was seen. It is when people steal things from the surroundings or even expensive jewelry from dead people and these people could have taken important belongings from deceased which meant alot to their family members.

          The economic issue in this video is that there will be economic losses by investors in Thailand and it would also affect the confidence in Thailand of the investors'. Thailand would need finance to rebuild all the destroed buildings and the hotels affected suffered heavy losses. In one of the scene, one of the man from the press said " That is a lot of unpaid room service." it is infact true as given the situation, they could not get payment from the guests and instead they have to spend more money in rebuilding the hotel.

          Lastly is the issue regarding political. The government was warned of the impending Tsunami but did not set up a warning system. The government should have set up a warning system to warn the people and maybe more people could survive the natural disaster by making their escape earlier before the Tsunami came. In fact, the arears affected had poor accessibilty, they do not have exit routes and none of the people are briefed about safety and plans of escaping when natural disasters striked them. Relief efforts were inadequate and evacuation by embassies from different countriesn were too slow. The local government did not do much to help those victims in villages. Embassies from other countries were slow in evacuating their people and as a result of that, people suffer just like one boy in the movie, he had to amputate his legs to stop the virus from spreading. The hospitals in Thailand did not have the equipments and proper treatment and thus the boy had to have his legs amputated to save his life. If the embassy had evacuated him earlier, he could have received treatment and would not have to have his legs amputated.

          From this video, I hope that it could spread the awareness of Tsunami and it could teach the people the right way to respond to it and have better accessibilty around. It is also important to have exit routes and a well-planned escape to increase the chances of survivors when natural disasters happened.

Reflection on the movie - ' The Cove '

          The movie ' The Cove ' is a film about the former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry's quest to document dolphin operation in Taiji, Japan. Ric O'Barry helped to capture and trained five dolphins for the television series, 'Flipper'  which were played by these five dolphins. After one of the dolphins in O'Barry's opinion, committed suicide in his arms by closing her blowhole voluntarily in order to suffocate due to tremendous and since then Ric O'Barry thinks that keeping dolphins in captive is a curse.

          According to the movie ' The Cove ' the Japanese fishermen in Taiji are killing the dolphins and whales for money. Taiji fishermen catch dolphins and sell the captured dolphins to dolphin trainers from all over the world. Dolphin trainers choose their desired button nosed dolphins and have them trained for performances in dolphin parks. Dolphins who are not selected by the dolphin trainers will be brought to the cove which is surrounded by wire fences and "keep out" signs for slaughtering and their meat will be sold in the markets.When these fishermen are questioned about the killings of the dolphins, they said that it is their tradition/culture but many Japanese did not know of such tradition existing. 

          It is 'wrong' to kill the dolphins and whales because they are intelligent and self-aware. According to a surfer in the movie, there was once when he was surfing, a predator was 2 metres away from him and a dolphin saved his life by pushing the predator away from him. Another reason is that the meat of the dolphin is toxic as it contains mercury and it will deteriorate the health of the humans. Lastly, the method of killing is brutal as the dolphins are being pierced through by a spear like weapon and they are left to die slowly until they drowned.

Reflection of video – South Park’s Whale Wars

          According to the South Park Whale Whores; the issue raised in the episode was the ongoing problem of the Japanese killing whales; as a result of them dropping the nuclear bombs "fat man" and "little boy" on Hiroshima.

          The japanese people were portrayed with a stereotyped asian accent with a slur and poor pronunciation on words , they were also depicted as having small eyes, another Asian stereotype, they were traditional Japanese clothes .They can also be seen running away and being afraid of a Godzilla figure. They were also obsessed about killing the "culprits" that were behind the Hiroshima bombing. Their savagery were also depicted in the manner of which they slaughtered the whales and dolphins, brutally stabbing them to death with make shift pitch forks.

          The activists depicted in the show were trying to stop the Japanese but failed to do so as they had no real way of physically stopping the slaughter through lawful means, this is proven when one of the crew members told Stan that they couldn't follow through with his ideas because it was against the law. Also Captain Paul Watson refered to the incident whereby he faked getting shot and then using the press against the Japanese. Stan takes over and then proceeds to actively make a difference and stop the Japanese, however his methods relies heavily on killing the Japanese, being aggressive before the Japanese have a chance to hunt; backed up with him saying on the television interview "they can be stopped, if you have balls." They are also shown to lie for higher ratings, as did Cartman and Kenny when they joined up with the crew, despite clearly not showing an interest in being an activist earlier on in the show.

          Another issue is the cultural ignorance potrayed towards the Japanese. The average viewer does not even know why the Japanese killed the Whales and Dolphin. Stan's hasty generalization towards the Japanese thinking that all Japanese does not speak english when he asked "You speak english?"

          Lastly, when the Japanese stopped killing whales and dolphins and killed chickens and cow instead Stan's father said " Now they are normal like us." He is trying to imply that killing cows and chickens are normal while killing whales and dolphins are not. Whales, dolphins, cows and chickens are all living things after all. This is what makes me puzzled,  they all can be eaten but why is it normal for humans to eat cows and chickens but not normal to eat whales and dolphins?

Why study Geography?

          Geography is the study of Earth's landscapes, people, places and environments. It is to understand the Earth and all of its human and natural complexities and the process of how things evolved. We study Geography for the knowledge.


          Geography puts this understanding of social and physical processes within the context of places and regions  recognising the great differences in cultures, political systems, economies, landscapes and environments across the world, and the links between them. Understanding the causes of differences and inequalities between places and social groups underlie much of the newer developments in human geography.


          Having knowledge of Geography is helpful in related jobscopes such as applied management resources and environments. It also allows us to understand what causes the natural disasters in the world and how to react when natural disasters occur. Understanding the causes such as global warming and anything that affects the world is the first step to enable us to figure ways to reduce or eliminate the problems. Learning through geography  whether gained through formal learning or experientially through travel, fieldwork and expeditions  helps us all to be more socially and environmentally sensitive, informed and responsible citizens and employees.